Signed, Sealed, Delivered

God has always been covenant minded. God is filled with integrity and His character is such that He always fulfills what He said He would. Sometimes it’s hard for us as humans to understand the full implication of this, because covenant isn’t the same in our eyes as it is to God. But, if we’re fully going to understand the plan and purpose God has for our lives, we’ve got to look at the way God created covenant to be.

Covenant means a legal agreement, a testament, a compact, a contract meant to be upheld. In Genesis chapter 17 we see God established a covenant with Abraham, promising to make him the father of many nations, to multiply Him and to make him exceedingly fruitful. Look at Genesis 17:7, “And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.” God said it, and God meant it. Now look at Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

When God sent Jesus, He signed a covenant with us, with anyone who would call upon the Name of His precious Son. He signed an agreement that He could never go back on. Jesus was the seal of that new covenant. Look at Matthew 26:28, “For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” There’s nothing more permanent, nothing more official, nothing more precious than the blood He shed for you and me. This is how God delivered us from the powers of darkness into the kingdom of His Son. (Colossians 1:13)

Romans 10:9-10 tells us how we enter into this covenant, “…if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” When we accept Jesus, that is us signing our end of the covenant. It means we’ve accepted Jesus into our heart and along with Him, we accepted what God gave us through Him. The confessing with our mouths is the same as us taking a legal oath to uphold our end of the covenant. If we’ve accepted Jesus, we are in covenant with God Himself. It’s a legal agreement. It’s meant to be upheld.

Sadly though, many Christians expect God to uphold His end of the covenant, but refuse to do their part. Christians want the safety of God, they want the peace of God, they want the provision of God, they want the health of God, along with all the other blessings He promised when He entered into covenant with us, but they won’t be doers of the Word. If you’re not all in with God, you can’t expect God to be all in with you. If you’re not tithing, if you’re not giving offerings, it’s like living in a household with your spouse and refusing to help pay for the mortgage, for the groceries, for the electricity, then wondering why the power is shut off. If you’re not coming to church to hear the Word of God, if you’re not reading your Bible and talking to God, it’s like trying to build a Lego spaceship without using the owners manual. It’ll end up crooked and things will be all out of order. If you want the health of God, but won’t put away the sins of the flesh, continuing to partake of life destroying substances, fornication, and the like, you can’t blame God when your healing doesn’t come.

See, a covenant only remains in tact if both parties remain faithful to that covenant. Think of a marriage where one spouse decided they didn’t want to be in covenant anymore and left. The other spouse can’t remain in covenant because they have no one to be in covenant with. People are abandoning God, divorcing God, but then expecting Him to continue to pay their bills, fight their battles, and bless their lives. We must not take God for a fool. He wants to bless us, multiply us, make us fruitful in all areas of life, but we must do our part. Let’s be all in with God! “God, what’s mine is yours and what’s yours is mine.” Amen?!